… and, lo, it has come to pass. Boro’ can indeed win at Carlisle, providing the match takes place on a Tuesday evening. Our petition has been put forth before the Football League. That said, we’re assuming it’ll end up in the same filing cabinet as our previous suggestions to ’em: the bin. Look, we thought (and still do) that robot penguin refs are a bloody good idea. Ho hum, we move on and on move we must. It’s always nice to get back indoors after a long trip to northern provincial hinterlands and that’s what we have: Port Vale at home.
It’s not as if robot penguins would do a worse job than Trevor Kettle, by the way.
Boro’ are back up and running, taking as many points from the last two fixtures as the current laws of football will allow. In returning to the homestead for our latest outing, it’s yet another eminently winnable fixture. We said that very same thing about Crawley, however, so we’re not counting our chickens and associatead fowl at this point in time. Still, Port Vale are not in good nick and we’ll tell you for why in just a rootin’-tootin’ moment. The bottom line is that we can make a good week even better. And that’s, well, nice. Isn’t it?
Stevenage v Port Vale: The Lowdown
The Opposition:
To be fair, we did all the introductions to Port Vale two weeks ago in our ‘Remember Them’ series. Remember? We’re not big fans of repeating ourselves, but let us squeeze out the most important bits. Our record against the Valiants is alright in the grand scheme of things. We have only been on the wrong side of the scoreline on two occasions; both of which were in the FA Cup and one of which was our most recent tête-à-tête. It’s also our recollection they didn’t like us much when we first met in the 2009-10 FA Cup, but buggered if we care…
The Form:
Port Vale liberated themselves from the oppressive clutches of League One last term, falling like the leaves of autumn into our little leaguette. Their quest for redemption, however, has got off to a rather rubbish start. A 3-1 win on the first day of the season at Crawley aside, Vale’s one other taste of glory came on pelanties in the Checkatrade Trophy. And we all know that doesn’t count. A couple of recent draws (FGR and Yeovil) have lifted them off the foot of the table. That’s the extent of their revival so far. Let’s stop it in its tracks, eh?
Here’s the bigger picture of recent form for us and them, courtesy of kickoff.co.uk…
The Referee:
The focus of our anger affection this weekend is going to be *drum roll*: Charles Breakspear
P4 W3 D1 L0 F8 A2; last result: Stevenage 4-1 Leyton Orient, 28/02/2017
The Head-to-Head:
P7W2 D3 L2 F8 A7; last result: Port Vale 1-0 Stevenage, 05/11/2017
• BoroGuide’s Port Vale club profile – you won’t have to look twice to know it’s the genuine article…
